FUBAR
by madcrafter72
Summary: "There's obviously something wrong, but he's too much a guy to actually talk about it, so you need to march over there and get it out of him. Then you can go back to making love eyeballs at each other, and finally jump his bones!" An AU from 47 Seconds. If you don't know what the title means, ask uncle Google.
1. Chapter 1

**A'N: a little something that popped into my head and wouldn't leave. Yes, I know its been a while, so please be gentle.**

 **Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own them. Do you take me for the type of person who would have let it end like THAT?**

 **FUBAR**

"Girl, you need to talk to him" Lanie repeated, filling up Kate's wine glass for the third time.

"There's obviously something wrong, but he's too much a guy to actually talk about it, so you need to march over there and get it out of him. Then you can go back to making love eyeballs at each other, and finally jump his bones!"

"No, Lanie, I think I've missed my chance, and I'm not going to make a fool of myself in front of his latest bimbo. If he doesn't feel the same way anymore, then I need to just move on."

"Feel the same way anymore? What are you talking about Kate Beckett?"

Oops. That wasn't supposed to come out. Kate pulled a face, regretting the wine she had allowed Lanie to talk her into, even though it used to be part of their regular girls' night routine. Thank god they were at her place, at least she could finally unburden herself to someone other than Dr Burke. As she explained the events after her shooting, Castle's words and her response to him in the hospital, Kate knew she should be explaining it to the man himself.

"Oh, girl. No wonder he was moping around at the precinct for weeks before Gates kicked him out. Javi said he didn't think the guy had slept much after your shooting, and now I can see he had even more reason to try to find your shooter."

Ï know all that, Lanie, but maybe he's just tired of waiting, and I can't blame him. I'm still damaged, definitely not _fun and uncomplicated_. Maybe its best if I let him go and be happy." Even Lanie could see that Kate's heart was breaking apart just saying those words.

"But he's not happy, girlfriend, that's what I'm trying to tell you. We've all become familiar with the Richard Castle publicity smile, and that is all he has been wearing these last few weeks. He's faking it, but I catch him watching you and his heart is still in his eyes before he shutters them over."

"Can we not talk about this any more please, Lanie? "

Lanie took pity on her friend at last and told her some funny stories from the morgue. But the whole time, she could see the devastation in Kate's eyes that she had caught glimpses of in Castle's. Lovesick idiots, the both of them, Lanie sighed, as she caught a taxi home.

* * *

Beckett was woken far too early the next morning by dispatch and threw herself into the latest murder. She was still good at her job, could bring closure to other families, and if it took more coffee than usual, and more makeup to hide the purple bags under her eyes, that was no one else s business.

The case was gruesome and complicated, definitely Beckett flavored, and took all her waking hours. She hadn't called Castle, and he didn't show up at the precinct, but Ryan and Esposito were obviously concerned, as they kept her coffee cup full, and kept glancing at her when they didn't think she was looking. She loved her boys, but she didn't have the mental space for them right now either.

Finally, the case was closed, the perpetrator on his way to booking and the paperwork submitted to the DA. Captain Gates, knowing how hard Beckett had pushed for this case – and the many others before it – gave the whole team three days off. Beckett was initially surprised, but then acknowledged she needed the break. It would be perfect in more ways than one.

* * *

Kate spent the first night and most of the first morning off asleep, until her brain had decided to torture her with scenes of Castle on dates with blonde bimbos, kissing and more intimate activities that she couldn't bear. She tossed and turned for a while longer, then tried to distract herself with chores – washing, cleaning, shopping. She even called her Dad, but it was too hard to pretend nothing was wrong so she rung off feeling even more guilty.

She thought about Castle, and how she felt about him, and remembered Lanie's words from the other night. What they had was much more important than anything else in her life, and just like Castle had been showing up and pushing for the last 4 years, it was her turn to fight for them. It was past time to come clean about her lie and tell him how she really felt. She dressed herself with care, choosing items she knew he liked, had seen his eyes sparkle when she had worn them. All the while, she was formulating what to say – he was the wordsmith, but just jumping his bones would not help matters at the moment. He deserved words from her. Hell, he deserved so much more from her, for all that he had given her over the years.

* * *

Kate knocked on the loft door, apprehension squeezing her insides. She knew he was slipping away from her and was determined to make one final effort to bring him back.

When he finally answered, she let out a long breath. He was dressed similar to how she had last seen him – jeans, a blue button up – and when he recognised her at his door, his face didn't blank into indifference like it had the last few times they had interacted.

"Beckett? Is something wrong?" Castle asked, and even his tone of voice was softer. She took heart from this and stepped inside the door. She was still mulling over her words, how to start this conversation, and gazing at her wringing hands for inspiration, as she watched his feet walk around her to close the door, then back towards the lounge. When he called her name again – Beckett of course, she hadn't been Kate to him in weeks – she finally looked up at him.

Standing behind his left shoulder, in the middle of the lounge, wearing what was obviously his bathrobe, wet hair ends darkening the fabric, was her – definitely former – best friend.

"Lanie?!'?"

Kate Beckett ran.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2 – FUBAR**

 _A/N: I am honestly blown away by the amazing response to this story. I'm truly grateful to know so many are still reading Castle fanfic after all this time. I was curious to see where you all thought I was taking this story, so thank you for sharing your thoughts on those possible paths. All will be revealed – eventually :-P_  
 _For clarity, this AU does not include the Slaughter case, and stretches the timeline of the end of 47 Seconds and the Limey._  
 _Disclaimer: Nope, not mine sadly._

Kate Beckett's phone was ringing before she even exited Castle's building, but she knew who would be calling and wasn't interested in talking to either of them. She turned off her phone and shoved it in her back pocket, a plan forming in her mind as she jumped in the first cab she could find and headed back home. She stopped only long enough to throw a few items into a duffel and abandon her phone on the kitchen counter. She collected another set of keys from her entry table and was out the door again within 10 minutes. She didn't look back as she slammed the door.

* * *

After unsuccessfully dialing Kate's phone for over 3 hours, Lanie had had enough. She stormed over to her apartment and banged on the door until Kate's neighbor came out and told her Kate obviously wasn't home, and to stop making racket. Lanie apologized, tried a few probing questions about when Kate may have been last seen, but the neighbor was of no help at all, so Lanie gave up and headed home, making one last attempt to contact her friend, and then another call to pass on her lack of success. She determined to visit the precinct the next day and confront Kate about her behavior and explain the afternoon's activities.

Castle wasn't happy to hear Lanie had not been able to contact Kate, but as his calls had also not been answered he wasn't surprised. He agreed to meet at the precinct first thing the next morning so they could sort things out. He decided to turn up with her favorite coffee and bear claw and hope that would be enough for Kate to at least hear them out. He realized it had been weeks since he had bought Kate coffee – weeks since he'd called her Kate, even in his head – and was a little ashamed. That was not how friends behaved, let alone the partners that they had been, and he was determined to make amends.

* * *

Lanie and Castle arrived to a near empty bullpen the next morning, with no sign of any of the team. Captain Gates was behind her closed office door, apparently on the phone. Castle was glad, as he wasn't ready for more commentary on his recent behavior. He hoped to get Kate into the break-room before he was seen. He had just placed the coffee and bear claw onto her desk when Lanie approached, having been to the boys' desks.

"I don't think they're here, Castle. Their desks look abandoned – all three of them." Lanie said dejectedly, belatedly remembering she had a few messages on her phone from Javi the previous night. In worrying about her friend, she had totally ignored them. She called them up now and listened while he explained the three days leave the team had received and offered some interesting activities. By his third message, Javi had obviously thought she was ignoring him, because he just said 'see you at the next DB'.

Just as she turned to advise Castle of this, Captain Gates came out of her office and headed straight for them.  
"Mr Castle. What are you doing in my precinct?"

"Just delivering breakfast for Detective Beckett, Captain" Castle tried to keep things light, while inwardly cringing at his lame response.

"Well, as you can see, she's not here. So, neither your breakfast nor you are required. Good Day!" It was obviously a dismissal, and she crossed her arms and glared at him, waiting for his withdrawal. He made one more attempt.

"Do you know when she will return? I'd hate for her coffee to go cold, she can get grumpy when she doesn't get enough caffeine." He also tried a light smile, but the narrowing of the captain's eyes told him that was a failure.

"You haven't been delivering her coffee for weeks, Mr Castle, so you may find her caffeine habit has changed. And I am certainly not going to divulge the whereabouts of one of my Detectives to a civilian. If she didn't see fit to inform you," and in this she included Lanie as well, by her sly glance at the ME; "then I will not be breaking her confidence. Now, as neither of you work here, I need you to leave so the rest of us can get back to work."

Castle was still reeling from the verbal slap about his coffee deliveries and wondered how the rest of the team had taken his abandonment – as he could now clearly see that is what his actions amounted to. He wandered dejectedly to the lift, not even noticing when Lanie pressed the call button, then ushered him into it, and gently guided him out on the ground floor. It was only when they were once again outside the precinct that he came back to himself.

"She's running again, isn't she?" Castle asked, though the question was mainly rhetorical.

"Yes, she is very good at that. And if she's thinking what I think she's thinking, then no wonder."

"But why would she …. I mean, she should know ….. I mean, surely…" Castle was dithering, his overactive imagination jumping from one scenario to the next, not liking any of them. He had received a number of shocks in the last 24 hours, upending his view of the world, and he was struggling to regain his balance and calm. He was also starting to feel a deep fear, because he remembered what happened the last time Kate ran, and how long it had taken them to get back into any sort of rhythm. He was really afraid that this time, there was no way back.

"Kate Beckett believes the evidence, and she has had plenty of that in the last two weeks, wouldn't you say?" Lanie turned on Castle, deflecting from her part in recent events. Castle was too much of a gentleman to call her out on it, but certainly Kate finding Lanie in his loft, dressed as she had been, was unfortunate.

"So, what do we do?" Castle asked, truly at a loss for a way forward.  
"What we didn't do last time – we find her" Lanie said, already dialing her phone.

A few phone calls later, she had arranged to meet Ryan and Esposito at the precinct that night, once Gates had left for the evening, so Ryan could run a trace on Kate's phone. Meanwhile Espo was surreptitiously checking Kate's bank, knowing Ryan would not approve, and feeling guilty the whole time. Beckett was his boss, and felt like his little sister, but he couldn't deny the desperate worry in Lanie's eyes for her friend. Lanie thought it best if Castle didn't turn up that evening, knowing how the boys felt about him at the moment, so she left his involvement out of her explanation and request for help. Instead Castle cooked dinner for his family, and tried to appear happy and carefree, only belatedly realizing his recent behavior had also impacted his mother and daughter. His guilt and self-loathing grew deeper.

When Ryan identified the last place for Kate's phone as near her home, Lanie rushed over, and rather than banging on the door this time, she used the emergency key Kate had showed her and quietly let herself into the apartment. She found the phone on the counter, and the rest of the place empty and silent. Where ever Kate was, she obviously didn't want to be found. The team only had one more day of leave however, so Lanie decided to let Kate hide, and then to confront her friend the day after. She sent a quick text to Castle to update him, then went home. Once there, she poured herself a large glass of wine and tried again to forget about her part in this latest mess.

Castle, trying to be a good dad, spent the evening with Alexis, and so didn't see Lanie's text until after midnight. His fear settled like a cold weight in the pit of his stomach, and he spent the night staring out his study window, sleep the furthest thing from his mind.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: nope, definitely don't own them._

 **CHAPTER 3 – FUBAR**

Beckett was dreading returning to the bullpen the next day, not fully confident her newly reformed armor was strong enough to face Castle and the ME, and she knew they would track her down sooner rather than later. She needn't have worried, though, because at 5 am that morning dispatch called her with a new case, and she could use the extra protection of a murder to solve, to keep them at arm's length a while longer.

The first her team knew of her return was the click clack of her heels down the alleyway, both of them turning in scary unison to the sight of Detective Beckett in full investigative mode. She nodded briefly to Ryan, who was further away, before her usual first question to Esposito, her voice crackling with command.

"What do we got?"

At the familiar voice Lanie looked up from where she had been bending over the body and released a sigh of relief. She waited for Kate to make her way over to her, offering a small nod and smile, but the detective didn't in any way acknowledge the ME. Beckett moved around the body, taking in all the tiny details that she could slot into the puzzle of the man's death later, and deliberately ignoring the ME, even when she stood up and moved to come closer and speak with a modicum of privacy. Before Lanie could open her mouth, though, Beckett was issuing instructions to her team.

"Espo, get the unis organizing the canvas, see if they can find his wallet or phone, his pockets are obviously empty. Ryan, see what you can track down for street or security cams in this area and the surrounding 3 blocks. It's a rundown area but we may get lucky. "There was a subtle intake of breath, then "Dr Parish, please confirm TOD and cause as soon as you can." Then the sharp staccato of her heels carried her back out of the alley and into her cruiser, to begin collating the information at the precinct.

Ryan and Espo had both seen Beckett ignore Lanie, and Lanie's crestfallen expression. Being excellent detectives, they could tell there was trouble between the friends, and wondered if they should have gotten involved in helping Lanie track Beckett down two days earlier. They also avoided talking to Lanie outside of the current case, and 0nce their tasks at the scene were complete, they spent the ride back to the precinct discussing what Lanie could have done to get that reaction from her best friend. Neither of them even remotely considered the possibility that Castle was involved, as they had not seen him in the Precinct for over a week, and even then, he was acting like he didn't want to be there.

* * *

The case proceeded normally. Lanie tried to speak to Kate, with the lead-in of news from the autopsy, but was summarily shut down, and Beckett sent Esposito down to the morgue to collect the report. Unfortunately, Lanie had a couple more bodies to deal with, so she couldn't leave the Morgue and confront Kate until late the afternoon of the second day of the case, and then she was stunned to learn that Beckett had left at the end of shift, something she had never done before. Both Ryan and Esposito were also shocked, but they knew where their loyalties lay so they refused to be drawn into conversation and potentially gossip about their team leader. Lanie's frustration with all three detectives boiled over, and she flagged the first cab she could find, directing the driver to Kate's address. On the way she remembered to text Castle with an update.

Once she arrived at Kate's apartment, she could see only one light on from the outside, but she hoped that meant her friend was home. 10 minutes of fruitless knocking on her door though, and two unanswered calls to her phone, meant Lanie was still on the outside. She suddenly recalled the spare key she had used last time to check on Kate but found its hiding place sadly empty. Once again, Lanie had no option but to go home defeated.

* * *

Castle had spent the last three days caught in a quagmire of indecision. He was still angry about her lie, but he really wanted to fix the situation with Kate, talk to her and apologize – and perhaps call her to task for getting the totally wrong impression about Lanie's presence in his loft – but he couldn't see how to get to that point. He knew he was being hypocritical, because hadn't he done exactly the same thing, jumping to conclusions when he had overheard Beckett in the box with Bobby Lopez? God, they were such a mess! He knew that forcing Kate to do anything she didn't want to was a short route to disaster, so he couldn't just turn up at her apartment and confront her. But he also recognized that the longer he left the current situation to fester, the more time she would have to build her walls back up and shut him out. The latest text from Lanie just confirmed what he feared – Kate Beckett blocked anyone out of her life who hurt her. He tried to feel a little pleasure at the confirmation that Kate still had feelings for him – for if she didn't, surely, she wouldn't care if her best friend was sleeping with him – but the sheer magnitude of the disaster he now found himself in sucked whatever joy he could muster right out of him as soon as it appeared. It didn't matter if Kate Beckett had feelings for him, if she never acted on those feelings, and never allowed him close enough to tell her about his feelings, to prove her wrong about her assumptions.

* * *

Beckett had in fact gone home to her apartment, and at the first knock on her door, had regretted the error of leaving her lounge light on, and turned her phone to silent. She sat in her dark bedroom, studiously ignoring the knocking and buzzing of her phone until it eventually stopped. Only then did she have a quick shower and get into bed. Sleep was a long time coming, and her dreams were more rightly called nightmares where she imagined Lanie and Castle in all sorts of compromising positions. She woke sobbing, roughly wiping her tears away and adding another layer of lacquer to her protective shell. In her rational moments she thought she had inadvertently given Lanie permission to pursue Castle by saying she was giving up – but did the woman have to jump so quickly? These thoughts occupied her waking hours, when she wasn't fully focused on the live case, so Beckett threw herself into her work and ignored everything else. No more allowing anyone into her life or her heart – it always ended in disaster. Hour by hour and day by day, she would rebuild her walls to keep everyone out. Only in her unconscious mind did she mourn the love that could have been.

* * *

Ryan watched Beckett day by day become more brittle, more closed off, and a small part of him wept for her. She was back to how she was before Castle joined the precinct, but this time she wasn't even enjoying an occasional night out with them or even Lanie. He spoke to Jenny about his concerns, but she didn't really know Castle or Beckett really well and couldn't offer any advice. She did ask him early on what Kate's dad must think about this situation, which reminded Ryan uncomfortably of Jim Beckett's face at the hospital while they were waiting on news of Beckett. The man had been devastated that his only daughter had been shot, as even then they knew it probably had something to do with his wife's murder. Beckett was again drowning in her work, not even a year after that life altering event, and Jim may be the only person who could pull her out of this dangerous spiral. Ryan did not even consider the other candidate for helping Beckett, as he had proven himself inadequate and no longer interested in the task.

It took a bit of doing, but he managed to track down Jim's phone number and arranged to meet at a local diner. It was hard to explain over the phone what he wanted to talk about, and Jim was immediately concerned, but Ryan gave him enough reassurance that 'Katie' was OK for the man to agree to a meeting the next day. Ryan then had his own sleepless night, working out how and what to say to his boss' father.

 _TBC_

 _A/N: I am sorry for the irregular posting schedule of this fic, but it is being written as I post. If that doesn't suit you, I understand you may want to unfollow and wait for it to be marked complete. At this stage I cant even predict how long this fic will be, as usual once i start writing the story gets away from me.  
_


	4. Chapter 4

_Disclaimer: Don't own any of these characters, but sometimes it's fun to play with them. Other times, they give me ridiculous writers block!_

 _A/N: My sincere apologies for the delays with this chapter, but the story took a left turn I wasn't intending and the resulting mess had me hitting a brick wall. Then real life got busy and it was easier to leave this story alone. With some expert help I managed to bring the story back into line, and I should be able to return to weekly posting. Thanks for your patience, your reviews are very much appreciated. M._

 **CHAPTER 4**

Ryan was no closer to knowing how to start the conversation with Beckett Senior by lunchtime the next day, and his nervousness was conveying itself to his partner, and, more unhelpfully, Beckett Junior. Finally, Esposito had had enough, and confronted him in the break room.

"What's going on with you, bro? You're as nervous as a jackrabbit. Jenny putting you on another cleansing diet?" Espo tried to joke. He could see it fall flat in the face of Ryan's shiver.

Ryan hadn't wanted to involve his partner, but after his fruitless night and morning, decided to speak up in hopes Espo might have a better idea on how to navigate the minefield he'd thrown himself into. He bustled his partner into the stairwell away from prying ears, and once there, he told him about the meeting with Jim Beckett, and how he hoped Beckett's Dad might be able to break her out of the spiral of self-destruction she was on.

"What the hell, bro? That's the dumbest thing you've done since I've known you. Are you out of your ever-loving mind?" was Espo's first reaction, and Ryan's face crumpled. His arm was roughly jerked as Espo moved further away from the homicide floor.

"Firstly, we've no business interfering in Beckett's private life – you know that as well as I do. Remember how she handed us our heads last time we tried? Yeah, I can see she's not happy, but she won't thank us for trying to 'fix' her, and the last thing I want is a transfer to some other precinct because she decides she can't work with us!" At this, Ryan paled even further: the thought had not even occurred to him.

"Second, why her father, of all people? You know their history, you know what they've been through. Don't you remember his face at the hospital when she was shot? I don't think Papa Beckett wants to get involved in telling her what to do – and she certainly won't appreciate it."

Espo ran out of steam, and Ryan took the opportunity to try to gain back control of the conversation.

"Well, she doesn't have anyone else – no Academy mates, no rookie buddies, and she's obviously not going to listen to Lanie. If Castle-"

"No, bro, that jackass is the last thing she needs. Don't even mention his name in my hearing. He jerked her around and then dumped her for the latest blonde bimbo. We are well rid of him!"

"Okay, okay," Ryan placated his partner, worried the rising volume of Espo's voice would be heard by the subject of their discussion. "But I've made the time with Mr. Beckett and I can't not turn up. And maybe he'll have an idea we haven't thought about."

"The first thing Papa Beckett is gonna ask is what happened to cause this. Do you know?" When silence greeted his question, Espo continued on. "Well, I know one person knows exactly what happened, and it's time she fessed up, don't ya think?"

* * *

Ryan knew they were going to be late to the diner, so he called Jim Beckett and let him know he was running about 20 minutes late. The last thing he wanted at this point was for Jim to head off after a no-show and query his daughter about the meeting.

Arriving at the morgue, Espo wanted to launch straight into interrogating Lanie, but Ryan took charge of the conversation instead. He knew they didn't have time for a lengthy conversation, but he didn't want to surprise Lanie with anything either.

"Lanie, I know you're on the outs with Beckett, and she's buried herself in work at the precinct. I asked Jim Beckett to meet with me, to try and help her out, but my partner here doesn't think that's a good idea. It's too late now to back out, but we need to know what actually happened between you to mess it up. Would you tell us and Mr Beckett what happened?"

Lanie thought for just a moment, then nodded. " Just let me pack up here and get my coat. May as well get this over and done with."

* * *

The moment Jim Beckett saw three of his daughter's friends turn up instead of just one, he knew something serious was going on. Being an experienced lawyer, though, he retained his poker face and utilized silence – quite similar to his daughter's interrogation technique – to draw the whole messy story from the ME.

"Kate was moping, and I could see that Castle's behavior was upsetting her, so I tried to convince her to go talk to him when we had drinks Friday two weeks ago. She thought he wasn't interested anymore, so was prepared to let him go, no matter how much it hurt her. I could tell he was putting on a brave face but he was hurting too, so I went over to his place to get his side of the story."

"He tried to deflect at first, telling me 'everything was fine'"; Lanie did a credible imitation of Castle's voice which surprised all the men;" and when I called him on it he clammed up. So I decided to read him some home truths about how Kate really felt, and what his flaunting of bimbos, in her own precinct, was doing to both of them, let alone the whole team." She glared at the detectives, knowing they had not given Castle the benefit of the doubt in the recent events.

"He was preparing lunch when I arrived, and he had a ketchup bottle in his hands trying to open the lid when I said Kate was in love with him, and had been for a long time. I think it was the last thing he expected to hear, because the bottle slipped out of his hand, bounced on the counter and sprayed sauce all over the front of my shirt, my face and half my hair. He was very apologetic and pushed me into the upstairs bathroom to wash up. He gave me his bathrobe, as his daughters obviously wasn't going to fit me, and asked me to hand the shirt out the door so he could wash it.

I heard the knock at the door as I was coming back down the stairs, and Kate's voice, so I thought perhaps she'd finally come to talk to him, and I could tell her what we'd discussed, then make my excuses and leave. Before I could say anything, though, she looked up and saw me in his living room, in his dressing gown with wet hair and obviously made the assumption that we had slept together! She ran out before either of us could say a word, and I haven't been able to even start a conversation with her since."

Both Ryan and Esposito were shocked as the full details of the confrontation at Castle's came out, and Espo was quick to launch his own interrogation of Lanie.

"Why the _fuck_ " – Jim blinked – "didn't you go after her straight away? Or Castle? After he'd shown off that bimbo last week, what the _fuck_ were you thinking being half naked in his loft?" Jim was open-mouthed.

"I couldn't go after her because I was only half dressed – which was the freaking problem in the first place. My shirt was still in Castle's washing machine. Why didn't _he_ go after her? Because she was gone faster than light and anyway she wasn't gonna listen to a word he said. Whatever he said. She's as good at making dumb-ass assumptions as he is and she lied to him first anyway."

Lanie wound down, obviously upset but full of fire to get the mess sorted out once and for all. She would not have thought of involving Kate's Dad, but could admit that things had gone too far, with Kate effectively barricading herself away from all of them, except for work related issues.

"Lied?" Jim said.

The other three looked at each other. Finally, the ME nodded, as she had the most information about this part of the story.

"You remember at Montgomery's funeral" - all four winced at the reminder of Beckett's shooting, none more so than her dad - "when Kate was lying on the ground, Castle was begging her to stay with him, and told her he loved her. It was loud enough that all of us heard, but none of us said anything about it. Kate was already fading, and we all just assumed she hadn't heard him."

"In the hospital, Kate told Castle she didn't remember what he said in the cemetery. Then he heard her tell some lowlife in interrogation she remembered everything. That's why he started pulling away – he assumed she didn't love him and he wanted to move on, and maybe hurt her a little, like he was hurting. Like I said, both dumb-asses when it comes to the other."

"Oh," Jim said, very thoughtfully, and then relapsed into silence.

Finally, after looking at each of the detectives and Katie's best friend long enough to make them all nervous, Jim spoke.

"OK, so why are you here? What exactly are you trying to achieve?"

The three conspirators were silent: even Ryan had not thought that far ahead. Now it was Lanie's turn.

"Mr Beckett, I want my best friend back. She's been miserable since Rick started pulling away, showing off other dates in front of her. She's obviously in love with him, but won't admit it to herself, let alone to the man who needs to know it. And Rick, well, he was stupid for assuming she didn't love him when he found out about her lie, but he's just as miserable, especially now he understands what his behavior has caused. I don't know if they will end up together, but Kate needs to know the real reason Rick pulled away, and she needs a life outside of homicide before she burns out."

Ryan and Esposito were both nodding. Ryan added, "Sir, she is our boss, and she wouldn't take kindly to us offering her personal advice, but she's also like our sister, and we hate to see her like this. Whatever she decides to do with Castle, we need our team back."

"And how does Rick fit into all this? Do you know what his intentions are now that the situation has been explained to him?" Jim asked Lanie, still not convinced he was the best person for this intervention. Lanie opened and shut her mouth a few times, because she was not prepared to speak for Rick, and while before Kate's lie she would have sworn black and blue Castle wanted to be with Beckett no matter what, Lanie couldn't be so sure now.

"So. what you want is an intervention, where we sit Katie down and tell her the truth of what happened. And then what? Do you think it will all be sunshine and roses again?"

None of them said a word. None of them could have truthfully said, presented in that blunt way, that it would be sunshine and roses.

"Right," said Jim, seeing the indecision on Lanie's face," I think I need to speak to Rick myself. I'm not at all convinced this is a good idea."

 _TBC._


End file.
